


ROSE

by RozyHtaylor



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-24 01:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7488813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RozyHtaylor/pseuds/RozyHtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one shot from the point of view of Patsy and Delia's daughter Rose. She's looking back at key moments in her childhood that made her who she was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ROSE

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this but now I'm not sure if i like it so i may take it down. I saw someone else do something like this from the point of view of Trixies daughter so its kind of based off that idea. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think, your comments mean a lot!

Mostly I'm calm; that’s what my Mam used to tell me she would say ‘on the days your calm your spirit home is a gentle river. That one would flow, creating peace and bringing harmony” something a women called Sister Monica Joan told her. I wish I could be like that more often. It would be so nice. Yet in my life there were challenges. Some of which I didn’t even think were challenges at the time. Some people found such happiness an affront to their inner misery. I have always been one to stand my ground “Like a lioness” Trixie used to say. I roar, stand my ground, defend myself and others I cared about. Afterwards, in private im shaken and drained. I know myself. I am proud of who I am. I like the person I have become, and I think the child version of my would be too.

As a family we never spoke about the first two years of my life, I didn’t want to know and they didn’t really want to know either. If we all knew and spoke about it, it may have taken away from what we were. I didn’t realise there was anything different about my parents, no one they surrounded themselves with made me think they weren’t ‘normal’. When I was younger our summers would involve going to the beach with aunty Trixie, Uncle Rowan and their children Henry and Bay. Henry is a year older than me while Bay is about six months younger than me. Aunty Trixie and her family were the closet thing I had to another family. My Mums Dad doesn’t come around very often, typically four times a year but he always sends money for Christmas. My mum says that the way of him showing he cares. The older I got, the more I understood that my Mum went through and why she and her father are the way they are. It never bothered me that I didn’t have a Dad, I never realised that I should have one. I never asked, no one ever told me otherwise. I grew up with a Mum and a Mam, who loved me to the bone, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I didn’t realise how much of a small minority I was or how much my family was. I didn’t understand why my parents gave up to raise me, to keep me safe and until I started school I didn’t know why they protected me in the way they did. We did lots of things as a family; we ate together all the nights we could, and we did so many things that families do. Even in the 21st-century people still didn’t see us as a family.

I guess im growing up. As a child I needed protection more than I could protect others, I don’t think that has anything to do with the way I was raised. It's just the natural way of things. To need guidance until we can walk on our own. Looking back on my childhood, the first time I noticed my family was different was during a year four parents evening. While I knew my family i was a spoke about speculation due to them both working for the NHS year 4 was the first time they were able to make a parents evening. Mr Barns was my teacher.  
Sitting outside the classroom my Mum said: “ I do feel so painfully out of place deels, like a pepperoni that has mistakenly made its wat onto a vegetarian pizza.” I didn’t really understand it then, why would i? I was just a child. I am glad I didn't know because if I did I think I would have struggled at the village primary school. Trixie laughed at my Mums comment from the chairs facing us; she was waiting to see Mr Barns as well. Me and Bay were in different years in school but due to the strange classroom system had ended up in a split class. We were sat outside classroom 4. My Mams gaze wandered to the wall opposite. The large clock at the end of the corridor told my parents that Mr Barns was running 10 minutes behind his schedule. I knew that Mum wouldn’t be impressed. Her obsession with being on time and keeping things clean and ordered hasn’t changed since before I was around. Aunty Trixie said once where they used to live my Mum cleaned the whole of the kitchen. Top to bottom just because she smelt dog muck off a poor nuns shoe. The baby blue painted walls were barely visible underneath the colourful displays my class had created. The door opened, a smiling couple emerged clutching a wad of precious paintings just waiting to go up on the fridge. A very tall mid aged man followed them.  
“Rose’s Mum? Do come in” He replied. His words were simple enough, yet when my Mum and Mam stood up. They could feel every soul in the corridor staring at them. Trixie took in a large deep breath almost as if to brace herself for the man's comments.  
“We don’t tend to allow family friends into the meeting, just immediate family” The teacher paused for a moment “Its for privacy reasons” He continued almost as if he was trying to redeem himself.  
“Shes not a family friend,” my Mam said, trying to stay calm. I think it was because she already knew that Mum was nervous about being there anyway. I saw Mr Barns open his mouth, close it and then re-open it again.  
“I'm sorry but its school policy” He repeated. Silence struck the corridor. I didn’t think about what I was saying, and I didn’t understand the situation, but I knew that something was going on.  
“Mam, why can't Mum come in with us?” My question was simple enough, and as the words left my innocent month. The connection was made in my teachers head.  
“Oh. I'm sorry. Come in” Mr Barns stuttered in a type of shock that even to this day I had never seen across his face before.

My Aunts' face was a picture as my Mum shut the door behind my family.My unique family. The conversation with my teacher was just as uncomfortable as the entrance. Conversations like the one with my teacher never fail to make my Mum uncomfortable and in some more recent cases made her face match the colour of her hair. My Mam, on the other hand, lived off the uncomfortable and slightly awkward conversations, she believed our family were stronger than that and stronger than any crap that anyone could throw at us. I never understood how they could how so very different reactions to the same situation. My Mam was confident and proud, not scared of judgement that’s where I get my fearlessness from. I get my competitiveness from my other mum and my cleanness!

Trixie smiled as my family left the parents evening they didn’t speak, but they exchanged glances that were their way of having a secret conversation. My Mum used to call it Nurses code. Aunt Trixie was the closest thing to my family my mum had, and she understood my Mum in a way my Mam never could, not that they argued over that. Even though I was so young at that parents evening at that moment, I started to understand in my little mind that not everyone would understand my family, without even realising I was doing it I stopped telling people about my y family. Until that moment, until that teacher didn’t accept that my family was a family I had never really felt differently about my family. I had no reason too.

As I started to grow up, I noticed that the word ‘gay’ was being thrown like an insult. I had two parents who loved and cared about me and who made a conscious decision to have and look after me, yet people were using the word that described my parents as an insult. I was too scared to say anything. I was too scared to stand up for the people that clothed and fed me.

I honestly didn’t really know how different having two mums was considered until I was about 15. I took me that long because I didn’t tell a soul about my family. At first, it was just comments made behind my back. My friends didn’t care who raised me or who I called Mum, but other people did. People I didn’t know suddenly decided that they knew my family better than I did. I didn’t want to go to my Mum or my Mam so I went to the only person I felt I could trust. Aunt Trixie.

Aunt Trixie lived about a 15-minute walk from my house, one evening when the shouting at school had started to get harder to take I didn’t know where else to go. I needed to talk to someone, so with that in mind- I walked over. I hadn’t seen the women I called Aunt Trixie in what seemed like months; she came over often enough, but life got in the way as my mum would tell me every time a day out with the family got cancelled last minute.  
“Sweetie are you okay?” she said opening the door just wide enough to see it was me. My eyes were red from crying. As soon as she saw me, she knew I didn’t want to see Bay or Henry. She must have had a sick sense that I needed her, now more than ever.  
“I need advice Trix,” I said  
“Oh god. I know it's serious when you start to sound like your Mum!” The still blonde women said opening the door properly to let me in. We made our way to the kitchen though Trixie's well-furnished house.  
She got me a can of Tazer a classic favourite within the nurses. If there wasn’t any at ours, Trixie would always have them stocked up in the fridge.  
“Right whats up sweetie?” she asked before opening the can and placing it in front of me.  
“Thanks” I murmured while trying to word my question. At that very moment I wasn’t sure why I came in the first place.  
“Rose?” Her caring voice spread throughout my body, making me remember why I was there. Part of me wondered if Bay had said anything to her mum but I highly doubted it. She wasn’t in my school year.  
“Why did it never bother you when Mum married Mam?” I asked. I didn’t know how else to start the conversation; I didn’t know how else to word my problem.  
“What do you mean?” The women asked with an almost blank facial expression.  
“How come you don’t care?” I asked.  
“Your parents love each other. It’s the same love between me and Rowan chick,” Trixie replied. I knew what she meant yet I just didn’t believe her.  
“Is that what you honestly think though?” I asked avoiding eye contact and focusing on the can sat on the table.  
“Rose what an earth is wrong?” Trixie asked, there was still care in her voice but she was filled with concerned.  
“People at school don’t see my parents like you do” I murmured half hoping she didn’t hear me at all. Half hoping that I would open my eyes and be at home.  
“Sweetie, have you spoken to your parents?” She asked me  
“And say what? People in my school think that your dykes, unfit to raise me and that you will go to hell.” I could hear the shakiness in my voice but I knew I shouldn’t harsh.  
“Oh sweetie” was all she could say. She hugged me and held me. “I know it's hard” She tried again to comfort me.  
“I want to say something to them but I just don’t know what to say.”  
“Sometimes words aren't the answer,” She said, “I know it's hard but sometimes walking about solves a problem better than any words have the power to do unless of course, you ask Rowan or your Mam then they would say smack the living daylights out of the bitch.” She said laughing; she was right about my Mam. She kissed me on the forehead.  
“Thanks,” I said  
“Just remember family is family no matter what people say.”  
“I guess your right” I murmured. When Trixie explained it to me it sounded so very simple yet in school nothing was simple. Teachers looked over the comments like harmless jokes, almost like they didn’t want to accept that the jokes made were serious remarks about the people that raised me, my family.

I dried my tears and Trixie drove me home, I told her I would walk but she insisted, she had to pick up Bay from somewhere so it was on route. I highly doubted it was but took the lift all the same. When I got home, my Mum and Mam didn't ask too many questions; we spoke the same conversations we spoke every evening. They asked me about my day – I lied. I asked them about theirs – They lied. But there was love there. I never doubted that. The trouble was, I didn’t care about how my Mams long shift was on male surgery and how my Mums on call with the nuns drove her insane because they kept hinting Bible verses at her.  
“I was thinking takeaway tonight?” My Mam said  
“Fish and chips?” my other mum questioned back. Take away was only ever fish and chips. I don’t know why they say it brings back memories of nursing school. Fish and chips also meant walking down to the same fish and chip shop, while my parents acted like teenagers laughing about the times they ate fish and chips in the chapel when they both lived in a convent. Part of my always liked hearing stories of young them, of them before me.  
They both stared at me waiting for me to decide if I wanted to join them on their ‘takeaway adventure’.  
“Fish and chips” I confirmed.

“Tell me a story,” I said while we sat on a park bench eating our fish and chips.  
“Rose you're nearly 16” Delia replied  
“One of your stories, a happy one,” I asked them.  
The pair exchanged eye contact. Nurses talk. Neither of them spoke.  
“Something you have never told me before.” I paused trying to think what I hadn’t been told before. “How did you know you were in love?” I asked.  
“Before we even met, I knew I loved her,” My Mum said kissing her welsh partner. “I heard her laugh in the dining hall. It was obnoxious. I could hear it from outside, up the stairs even in my room when I woke up that morning. I knew I had to find the girl with that great welsh laugh. I found the girl with the welsh laugh, didn’t have the courage to talk to her until she fell down the stairs I have just cleaned.” The pair looked at each other like teenagers, and I loved looking at them in love. It made me forget all the hell at school, it made me remember why I loved my family and why I loved them. Watching them in love made me remember love.

  
Henry met me in the hallway. I think his Mum had told him to look after me, to watch my back. He did it anyway; he was good like that almost like a brother. I thought that I would make it to the field without seeing anyone, but before I knew it I heard insults than a girl who I had never seen before faced me. I look down as the girl shouts insults at me, I try not to show that I'm hurting inside. I tried to be the bigger person. I didn’t really notice the crowd that had gathered but Henry had I felt his arm on me but I was frozen. What else can i do? Suddenly I felt her fist hand on my face. I stumble backwards and blood trickles from my nose. I didn’t feel anger like I had felt at that moment. I had never punched anyone before, so I was incredibly surprised at the pain that blazed up my arm as my fist connected with her Jaw. I could see by her face she wasn’t expecting it.

There is blood on my knuckles and I could feel a bruise coming over my right eye. My ashy blonde hair now looked more unkempt than ever and my right eye has swelled so no one could see the eye of hazel and honey.Before I really had time to think about the situation Henry was holding me in his arm. As much as I tried to keep it in, the pain came out like an uproar from my throat in the form of a silent scream against henrys chest. Beads of water started falling from my eyes stinging as they fell one after another with no signs of stopping. She flipped her hair and turned to leave, no teacher in sight as she broke through the circle that when I heard his voice.  
“Charlotte Fincher!” His voice echoed down the corridor as pupils scattered in all direction pretending they hadn’t seen what had just happened.  
“Rose Mount,” He said after evaluating the scene around him. “Follow me the pair of you!”

I did as I was told and followed the head, Henry walked slyly just a few paces behind me, just in case he was needed. I didn’t want to fight again. All I could think about was how pissed my Mums were going to be. I wasn’t worried about my sore hand or my bruised face. I sat alone in one of the isolation room. I felt like I was awaiting my fate.

The nurse came to see me and suggested I go to local emergency department for my hand, i attempted to write up a statement, but it was all a bit of a blur. All I know is that she through the first punch and I was standing up for my family!  
“Do you want the good news of the bad news?” Henry said knocking against the already opened door and waking me from my worried trance.  
“There's good news?” I asked.  
“Well, in the situation” He replied laughing “Neither Delia or Patsy can be reached, so my Mums on her way.” His voice was just a comforting as his mums.  
“and the bad news?”  
“My Mum is pissed but not just at you if that makes you feel any betters” he smirked. Before I had time to reply.  
“Rose!” I heard belted down the corridor.  
“Speak of the devil” He whispered as the receptionist guided Trixie to the room where I was.  
“This is not what I meant when I told you words weren't the answer, I thought I mad myself clear,” she said, her voice was both angry and concerned.

Don’t get me wrong she was mad but it soon left her. I think the 3 hours at AandE. Broken knuckle. Could have been worse. My hand was placed in a splint, bending my knuckles very tightly round basically a strip of curved plastic and holding it there for eight long weeks.

“Have you spoke to them?” I asked when we were driving back from the hospital.  
“I have exchanged texts with your Mum and she wasn’t too happy.” She replied as she turned down my road.  
“Thanks for today,” I said getting out the car.  
“I'm going to come in, I need to give you Mam the X-rays,” She said shutting her car door behind her.  
I breathed a large sigh as I opened the door. I ambled into the living room where they were sat. My armed was in a sling which made it look worse than it was.  
My Mum didn’t really move when she saw me but Mam jumped out her seat and hugged me.  
“Your in so much trouble,” She said as she hugged me. As she let go Trixie handed her the Xrays.  
“Don’t be too harsh on her, she's had a long day” She looked at my Mum as she spoke. I could see the disappoint in My Mums' eyes.  
My mum nodded, but no words left her mouth.

“We need to talk about what happened today,” My Mam said guiding me to the sofa opposite where the pair were sitting.  
“Look I know you're mad.”  
“Mad doesn't even cover it. You broke the girls nose!” My Mum burst.  
“She punched me first Mum. I just stood up for myself.”  
“Where did it all come from?” Mam said trying to keep calm  
“D-don’t worry” I stuttered.  
“Rose!” My Mum burst again  
“Cant you just get on with punishing me so I can go to bed,” I said, I didn’t want to come off harsh.  
“We have a meeting with the head tomorrow with you and this girls father so we need to know what happened?”  
“You” Was all I could reply. “It all happened because of you!” I said.  
“Rose… ?” Mam said.  
“It all happened because it got round that I have 2 Mums,” I said slowly, taking deep breaths as I spoke.  
“Were people giving you a hard time?” My Mum said, slowly starting to lose the blunt tone that she had spent many years trying to soften.  
“Look it's not important,” I said.  
“Why didn't you tell us?” Mam said  
“And make you feel reasonable for the crap I get put through at school, you go through enough shit without my school being a problem,” I said before standing up and leaving the room. I knew i shouldn't have left.

  
We looked like a right state all sat in the principles office, I hadn’t met homophobia until we came face to face with her father.  
“You weren't kidding she is being raised by dykes,” He said as she walked into the room, I know that they both heard it but chose not to comment.  
After a long meeting, I didn’t get suspended just a week of after school detention. From that moment, I never took my Mums for granted and while I never shouted from the rooftops about my Mums I was so proud of them. I loved them and I knew when they stood up for me in the office that they loved me too. More than they could ever put into words.

* * *

  
What I learnt from being raised by Patsy and Delia is that growing up is not going to be easy but I was surrounded by never ending love and happiness. Growing up has been such a baptism of fire. I have always asked ‘ why’ and never hid from possible answers, just like my Mum. Looking back growing up how I did only made me stronger, I learnt who to trust and who to love. I learnt about open mindedness and how to find true happiness even in slightly(very) bad judgement.  
Looking back there were many things growing up I should have questioned and there were many things I should have changed rather than just letting it go by.


End file.
